


Griffin & Wildflame

by abluestocking



Category: She Keeps Me Warm - Mary Lambert (Music Video)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Superheroes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-04
Updated: 2014-10-04
Packaged: 2018-02-19 21:32:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2403632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/abluestocking/pseuds/abluestocking
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>By day, Ellie makes espresso. By night, she fights supervillains. But how to tell her girlfriend about her night job...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Griffin & Wildflame

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Percygranger](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Percygranger/gifts).



“And then,” Ellie said, leaning on the counter, “he told me to keep the change. Eighteen cents! After yesterday, when he was there for five hours and only bought one small coffee, and nearly killed me with that tripwire of a power cord.” 

Gwen looked up from the carrots she was chopping. “Eighteen cents is a lot, missy. In the Depression, a woman would do a lot to earn eighteen cents.”

“Luckily we’re not in the Depression,” Ellie said, and stole a carrot, getting an ineffectual swat on the hand from Gwen. “I swear, he comes in three days a week and hogs the comfy chair _all day_ , and if Mac would let me, I would evict him so fast...”

“And then he’d leave a scathing review on Yelp,” Gwen said, sensibly, and added the carrots to the already browning onions. Ellie worked all day surrounded by the smell of coffeecake and brownies, sugar upon sugar, and there was nothing better than coming home to the smell of onions & garlic. Forget actually eating it – although Ellie liked that part too – she’d be happy just to have her apartment filled with that smell for eternity.

“I just don’t know how that kind of people make a living,” she said now, hopping up on the counter and dangling her feet. “He’s so unlikeable, and his smile’s so sleazy. How can anybody pay him to do a job? He’d put off any customers or clients.”

Gwen considered this while turning on the oven light to check the red pepper she was roasting. “Maybe he’s a writer. There are lots of asshole writers out there.”

“Maybe,” Ellie said, not convinced. “The writers usually wear beanies and hang out in the corner having workshops and staring glumly at the emptiness of their lined notepads.”

“That’s the _hipster_ writers,” Gwen said, knowledgeably. Ellie was happy to defer to her expertise. “They’ll grow out of it, hopefully.” She looked at Ellie and raised an eyebrow. “Get your cute butt off my kitchen counter, woman.”

Ellie stuck her tongue out at her. “I like watching you cook.”

Gwen cooked like Ellie played guitar, as if it was the perfect way to relax after a long day at work. Ellie liked watching the tight lines at the corner of Gwen’s eyes fade as she chopped and stirred, mixed and spiced. It was a little transformation every time, from beleaguered grad student to warm laughing girlfriend, and Ellie loved it.

“Maybe he’s the Vengeful Spider,” Gwen suggested, reaching for the cumin. 

Ellie handed it to her, thinking. “Well, he’s certainly spiderlike. But don’t superheroes usually try to hide their secret identities? Vengeful Spider would be too on-the-nose for him. He’s more likely to be, I don’t know, the Kind Angel or something.”

“Please tell me there’s not a superhero called the Kind Angel,” Gwen said, laughing. 

“It does sound a bit like a vibrator brand, doesn’t it?” Ellie asked.

Gwen pointed the wooden spoon at her. “No talking about vibrators while I’m cooking. You know where that leads. Burnt dinner, smoke alarms, and getting takeout again.”

“One little kiss won’t hurt,” Ellie said, leaning down.

~

“You know you’re going to have to tell her,” Mac said.

She’d at least waited until they were back at the coffeeshop, filling out the interminable paperwork that was as much a part of their job as the crime-fighting. (Probably more.) Ellie needed all her attention on her work when fighting half-men half-panthers, not on the girlfriend who was sleeping peacefully somewhere, completely unaware that her significant other had a secret double life.

“I know,” Ellie said.

Mac patted her on the shoulder. “Buck up, kid. It’s a perfectly decent job – the healthcare’s excellent, and you get free bus passes, when the driver’s not annoyed at you for throwing a car across his route last week…”

“Yeah?” Ellie said, grumpily straightening the form she was filling out. “How’s that conversation supposed to go? I’m in my third year at Superhero Academy, interning in the field nights, and after I graduate I’ll be posted abroad for my first tour of duty. Hope you like traveling, and staying awake at night worrying if I’m going to get my _head ripped off_.”

Mac raised an eyebrow. “It’s not Superhero Academy.”

“Yeah, yeah, well, that’s what everyone calls it,” Ellie said. “You’ve been a great trainer, don’t get me wrong, and I love the work, it’s just… I’m kinda falling in love with her too.”

“People fall in love with military people all the time,” Mac said, handing her another form. “Don’t forget Section B – I doubt the panther has seizable assets, but it’s possible. Maybe your girl will be attracted to the drama and mystique of it all.”

“Because ‘my girlfriend has a secret identity’ always goes over well. You’re one to talk, Electric Amazon.”

Mac nodded, acknowledging the point. “Mostly Shonda broke up with me because of the ‘my boyfriend is a girl at night’ thing, but the superhero bit didn’t help. But Shonda was just one woman. Yours sounds pretty special.”

“She is,” Ellie said, frowning down at Section B. “That’s the problem. I don’t want to lose her.”

“You’re cute, you make decent espresso, and you can tangle with a half-man half-panther and come out on top,” Mac said, tipping her chair back in a frankly dangerous way. “She’d be a fool to dump you.”

“I want to move in with her,” Ellie blurted.

She let herself imagine it. Cooking dinner together every night (if Gwen didn’t get detained at the library – sometimes she lost track of time, absorbed in her books). Having sex in their bed - _their_ bed. Waking up snuggled in Gwen’s arms in the morning, brewing her coffee before work, trying not to trip on Rex, Gwen’s kitten. It was everything she wanted.

But you couldn’t sneak out of a lover’s bed to go patrolling the city at night. If she moved in with Gwen, Gwen would have to know. 

“Well, if it goes wrong,” Mac said, not entirely reassuringly, “you let me know. Say the word, and Electric Amazon will show up at your door, cape and all, to talk some sense into her. Or Mac, if a big tattooed black dude with dreadlocks would be more persuasive than a superheroine, under the circumstances. Now fill out the rest of your forms, and I’ll go make us more coffee.”

~

“I picked up some champagne,” Gwen said, with a little twirl into the kitchen. 

Ellie turned from the stove, already smiling. “I forget our anniversary?” Seven months and fifteen days, but oh no, she wasn’t counting.

Gwen stuck her tongue out, set the champagne on the counter, and stooped to scoop up Rex. “I got past the bottleneck and wrote ten pages today!” 

“That’s great,” Ellie said, meaning it. She couldn’t even imagine writing ten pages in a week, let alone a day. But then she wasn’t the grad student in the relationship.

“How was your day?” Gwen asked, stepping up behind her and leaning her chin on Ellie’s shoulder. Rex mewled disapprovingly at being slightly squished. “Was the Vengeful Spider there again?”

“Good,” Ellie said, and then, abruptly, seized her courage. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

“You’re running away with Vengeful Spider,” Gwen said, in mock dismay. “I knew there was something there. I told myself you loved me, but his charm was just too much…” She caught sight of Ellie’s face and trailed off. “You okay, El?”

“I’m fine,” Ellie said, reaching out a hand to pet Rex’s ears. “It’s just. Well. You know we were talking about superheros. And.”

“Don’t tell me Vengeful Spider _is_ a superhero,” Gwen said. “Surely Superhero Academy would never let somebody like him in.”

“Not somebody like him,” Ellie said, but couldn’t finish the sentence.

She saw the moment Gwen put two and two together. “Ellie.”

“I’ve been wanting to tell you,” Ellie said, all in a rush, once the first hurdle had been breached. “I just didn’t know how, not really – I’ve never told anyone before – and you get the intro class in how to disclose, but it was two years ago, and I didn’t want you… I didn’t want…”

“What didn’t you want?” Gwen said. She hadn’t jerked away. That was a good sign. They said sometimes people didn’t want anything more to do with you, that sometimes they acted like it was contagious, or like you were dangerous. Ellie wasn’t dangerous. She was just – a little special. Or weird, if you wanted to put it that way.

She swallowed. When she looked into Gwen’s eyes, they were soft, and that gave her the strength to say, “No pressure. It’s okay if you can’t deal with it. I understand if you don’t want…”

Gwen put Rex down on the counter – entirely against the rules, but that didn’t seem to matter right then – and slipped a hand under Ellie’s chin, tilting it up. “What didn’t you want?”

“I love you,” Ellie said, the words coming out in a tumble. 

She’d said it before, but never quite like this – as answer, as challenge, she didn’t know. 

Gwen kissed her.

Ellie was dimly aware of Rex stalking off and jumping down to the floor, of one of the Patel toddlers next door screaming that they didn’t _like_ spinach, of the sound of the city outside Gwen’s open window. Her world, however, had narrowed to Gwen’s arms.

“There’s something I need to tell _you_ ,” Gwen said, when they broke apart at last.

Ellie raised a shaky eyebrow. “You love me too?”

Gwen stroked a thumb down her cheek, and Ellie closed her eyes, shiver running up her spine.

She didn’t know what she’d expected Gwen to say, but “I’m not exactly a grad student,” wasn’t it.

Her eyes popped back open. “You’re not a grad student?”

“Sort of?” Gwen said, making a face. “I mean, yes. But not exactly?”

“Explain,” Ellie demanded. “And then we’re ordering pizza. I’m starving.”

Now that she’d confessed, she could hardly breathe for the happiness of it. There was just enough room in her stomach for pizza, and perhaps a few butterflies at the prospect of carrying Gwen off to bed afterwards. (She didn’t have to hide super-strength anymore!)

“I’m training to be a Time Agent,” Gwen said, obligingly opening a kitchen drawer for the delivery menus. “My mother was a superheroine, but I don’t have any powers. But since I know the culture and did a degree in history, I was recruited for the Time Agency. I’ve only got a year or so left before I get my first assignment.”

Ellie had heard about the Time Agency. Who hadn’t? It was always really frustrating when a particularly smart (or rich, or well-connected) supervillain invented, hired, borrowed, or stole a time machine. If you were a normal superhero on their trail, you had to write up a long report and file a lot of forms so the Time Agency could take up the case. Some Time Agents tracked down the time machines and confiscated or destroyed them. Others – the field agents – had to follow the supervillains through time and take them out before they changed history. 

It sounded like an incredible amount of work to Ellie. She’d had enough trouble learning how to deal with supervillains in the 21st century, let alone the 14th or 9th or whatever. Heck, there’d probably be a whole other system of paperwork to deal with as well. But somebody had to do it, and Time Agents were the best.

“Are you really writing a dissertation?”

Gwen nodded, leaning back against the counter. “I’m doing a study on Star Assassin’s jump back to 1932 Boston. He was caught after a week, but there were some mistakes made, and I think we can learn from it. My field is the Great Depression, so I told you the truth about that … mostly.”

“You just left out the ‘glamorous Time Agent’ part,” Ellie said, feeling the beginning of a grin coming on.

Gwen threw back her head and laughed. “And you left out the ‘powerful superheroine’ part!”

“We make quite the pair,” Ellie said.

She'd meant it as a joke, but Gwen’s smile got shy. “Yes,” she said, and reached out to tangle Ellie’s fingers in her own. “We do.”

“One thing,” Ellie said, squeezing her hand. “Do you Time Agents have names?”

“Codenames with the agency,” Gwen said. “And then period names if our own doesn’t fit.” Her eyes widened. “You have a superhero name!”

“Well, it won’t be official until I graduate,” Ellie said, shuffling her feet. “But Mac calls me Griffin. Because, well. I have super-strength but my special power is freezing people by roaring in their faces like a lion.”

Gwen’s smile was devilish. “My girlfriend yells loud enough to freeze people. I’d better be careful when I’ve got my mouth…”

“And what’s your codename?” Ellie asked, loftily, feeling the blush mount up on her cheekbones. She’d never let her powers out in bed. Before Gwen, she’d never even felt tempted (and also, having roommates meant roaring was probably out). But now… and Gwen had a studio apartment, no roommates… though the Patels might complain…

Gwen laughed. “It’s silly. But you know, my hair.”

“What about it?”

“It’s Wildflame.”

“Griffin and Wildflame,” Ellie said, and then she did have to laugh. “We sound like a bad bodice-ripper.”

“I like it,” Gwen said, snuggling up to her. Rex had returned, and was prowling around their legs. “Besides, I’ll rip your bodice any day. Specially after you’ve protected the city from evildoers with your strength and roar. Roar at me, baby.”

“Come on, Wildflame,” Ellie said, and plucked the delivery menu from her free hand. “Let’s order that pizza.”

“Later?” Gwen said, giving her a beseeching look.

“Later,” Ellie promised, and only blushed a little.

~

“A half-man half-panther?” Gwen said admiringly, stroking her hand down Ellie’s bicep.

“All in a day’s work,” Ellie said, and kissed her again.

~


End file.
